Multisystem failure is altered organ function in an acutely ill patient requiring medical intervention to achieve homeostasis.
Stroke, or cerebrovascular accident (CVA), is one of the most common multisystem failures. It is the rapid loss of brain function due to disturbance in the blood supply to the brain. This can be due to ischemia (lack of blood flow) caused by blockage (thrombosis, arterial embolism), or a hemorrhage. As a result, the affected area of the brain cannot function, which might result in an inability to move one or more limbs on one side of the body, inability to understand or formulate speech, or an inability to see one side of the visual field.
The symptoms of stroke usually appear suddenly. Initially the person may feel sick, and look pale and very unwell. They may complain of a sudden headache. They may have sudden numbness in their face or limbs, particularly down one side of their body. They may appear confused and have trouble talking or understanding what is being said to them. They may have vision problems, and trouble walking or keeping their balance. Sometimes a seizure (fit) or loss of consciousness occurs. Once these symptoms appear, it is inevitable to prevent the stroke from happening and the patient will be treated as a stroke patient.
Many efforts are invested in finding precursors predicting the appearance of stroke days, weeks and maybe months before it actually happens. For example, Patent Application WO12138740A2 suggests a predictive model which can be used to predict an individual's propensity for developing a given disease like stroke. Patent Application EP 2411804 suggests a method for early in vitro diagnosis of stroke by identifying certain biological markers. These methods are useful for detection a few hours before the onset of the stroke but not earlier than that.
Currently, there are no symptoms that predict a long time ahead (couple of day to few weeks) whether a person is about to have a stroke. Therefore, there is a long felt need for a system and a method that will predict early enough a stroke that will enable efficient treatment for prevention.